Metaphors stood in line to get into my journal.For instance:
I'm a revolving door.
Dizzy, I send everyone else off to their lives, but I never go anywhere.
Marty, January 1984
Kids snuggle moms like quilts,
but eventually they kick off the covers.
Marty, August 1988
I have to be the light at the end of my own tunnel.
Marty, March 1987
Who are the ancestors I carry around inside me like a Babushka doll?
Marty, October 1992
Metaphor (like her sister, Simile) is an implied comparison—I love to play with both of them. Pictures can be painted with vivid verbs, too. "The wind sliced through the threadbare coat and stole her breath," or "The clock in the dark hall whispered 'Can't sleep, can't sleep,' in a mocking chant." (Does anyone else stay up until 2:00 am toying with words???)
Some of my favorite quotes have images so vivid I can picture them. (So, I did.)
"If you want your children to keep their feet on the ground,
put some responsibility on their shoulders."
—Abigail Van Buren
—Abigail Van Buren
"I am fairly certain that given a cape and a nice tiara, I could save the world."
—Greeting card
Here's my all-time favorite description of an angel—
by an angel, I might add.
—Greeting card
Here's my all-time favorite description of an angel—
by an angel, I might add.
"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."
—Marjorie Pay Hinckley
It's your turn:
It's your turn:
Compare yourself. What's an adjective that describes you right now? Fierce? Flexible? Fragile? Frustrated? Focused? Feisty? Now think of something else that has that characteristic, use a little alliteration or personification, and make yourself a metaphor!
7 comments:
I love the quote form Marjorie. i will be writing this one in my journal and thank you for sharing it today. I needed it. After all these days of snow and being stuck inside and caring for my kids on canceled school days and helping out friends and preparing for an event for Project Linus with my Brownie troop. Sometimes it all gets so overwhelming but when put like that it makes you feel as though you really are doing what you are supposed to do. Again, thank you.
My best analogy was comparing myself to our Christmas tree -- bare in spots, too full in others, greater than the sum of its parts, and in the right light looks absolutely fabulous.
Today I feel like a soggy dishrag.
i also loved the Marjorie Hinckley quote. i have taken care of little ones and teens for my whole life and feel that I am like their gardner. I plant the seeds, tend to the ground, lovingly watch as the little plants struggle to grow. With intense pride i see those little seeds turn into a beautiful flower or vine. I prune them and care for them, but ultimately the plant is on its own, to provide its color and vibrancy to the world. I must stand back and watch, my work is done.
Love, love, love your revolving door and quilt metaphor! You have a terrific way with words.
Me? I'm a bowl of oatmeal -- brown, lumpy, and needing to be sweetened with sugar.
I'm as flighty as a kite in a wind storm.
I wish when I'm up at 2:00 a.m. it was to toy with words, instead toying with pain.
Today I am a threadbare quilt, time-faded but well-loved.
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